


The Scientist and His Songbird

by OmgItsA



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 03:46:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8312737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmgItsA/pseuds/OmgItsA
Summary: Bruce Banner has a secret. No, not that one, another secret. Her name is Gabriella.





	1. Chapter 1

"Oh God," Pepper said, "Those poor people."

"What's happening?" Bruce asked, walking into Tony's lab. He'd been working diligently with some slides for Helen Cho, and happened to look up and notice most of the team in Tony's lab huddled around a projection. As he entered he saw a video playing live coverage of something.

"Bank robbery in Midtown," Clint said, "They were too stupid to get in and out quickly. They've been roughing up hostages for the last hour of so."

"Can't you go help?" Pepper asked hiding her face in Tony's shoulder as footage of a young man being pistol whipped in the window replayed "I was there _hours_ ago…that could've been me!"

"Not our thing." Tony said regrettably while holding her tighter, he did not like thinking about her in there, "We can’t really afford to step on the NYPD's toes. They tak care of this stuff, and we take care of Hydra."

The robbers had most of the hostages lined up along the front glass windows. The camera panned along the victim's faces. Some more roughed up than others. One particular face caught his attention. She was a pretty young blond, with big blue eyes, and full lips. Lips that were usually smiling, were now split and bruised. Her hair, which she mostly kept braided back, was loose and matted down with blood. Her blue eyes that more often than not twinkled with mischief stood out even more against the dark bruise already forming under her left eye. 

_Oh God, no._ Bruce thought to himself.

Although the camera panned by pretty quickly, Bruce missed nothing. He was categorizing her injuries: head contusion meaning a possible concussion, multiple lacerations in need of stitches, she was favoring her left leg and was shaking. 

Everything stopped. Well, everything for Bruce. His teammates were so consumed with the footage none of them noticed the normally quiet man storm out of the lab with a green tint to his skin, and a manic promise of violence in his eyes. Midtown was only a few miles, he could make it. He _would_ make it.

It wasn’t much later the reporter said something about an earthquake, as the camera shook. A loud roar could be heard off camera. Natasha cocked her head…that sounded like! She turned, only to find than Banner was gone. 

"What the fuck?" Tony murmured.

They all watched stunned as Hulk jumped in frame, just behind the police tape. Several members of the NYPD dropping their guns in surprise. 

"Tony!" Steve called running out of the lab followed by Clint and Natasha.

"On it!" he replied suiting up.  
�Pepper and Jane watched the screens intently. Hulk jumped up and smashed through the side of the Bank. There was a round of gunshots, a deafening roar, then silence. One by one the robbers flew through the hulk sized hole into a pile in front of the police, bound together with make shift restraints. 

The most surprising thing out of all of this was watching Hulk gently climb back through his hole, with a young woman cradled in his arms. No one got a good look at her before he took off, back the way he came.

"JARVIS tell the team Hulk is on the move!" Pepper ordered, "And alert medical, I have a feeling they may have company soon."

"Sir is aware of the situation Miss Potts," The AI replied, "And Medical has been alerted."

"You think he's bringing her here?" Jane asked a little worried. She'd been here months and hadn’t ever run into 'The Other Guy'. 

"I have no idea, but I've learned it's better to be prepared." Pepper said heading up to medical- there was no way she was missing this. What the hell had Bruce been keeping from them?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

It took longer to get back to the tower. Hulk was being careful with his precious cargo, and was only about half way back to the tower when he was approached by Lady. He grunted, Hulk did not have time for this. 

"Hulk, I need you to put the civilian down." Natasha ordered calmly.

He looked to the roof tops, Bird was always with Lady. Movement down the street caught his attention, that had to be Bird with his stupid sticks.

"I got you covered." Clink said into the com.

"Come on buddy." Tony said dropping down next to Lady, "Lets not turn this into a thing ok?"

"Angel hurt." Hulk said, frustrated his team "Move."

"We can help her Hulk." Tony said, more than excited he'd get to tease Bruce about the Angel comment his alter ego made. For the Hulk that was practically waxing poetic about her beauty. What? Had Bruce seen this girl on TV and been so moved he hulked out to rescue her? 

"Clear." Sam said through the com. Steve, and Wilson had been intently listening while clearing civilians from the street incase this went south. Hulk responded best to Natasha, because of her calm demeanor, and Tony… God knows why. 

"You have to put me down," The woman said weakly, blood loss evident by her pale clammy coloring.

"Fix." Hulk stated softly, well as softly as the hulk could. 

"You did so good babe," she said pecking his shoulder weakly before going limp.

" _Babe_?" Tony asked Natasha. 

"I'm sorry did she just call the hulk _babe_?!" Sam asked through the com.

"She needs a doctor," Natasha called to The Hulk calmly, "You did your job, let us help now."

"Hurt." he said stepping towards Tony and bending down to hand her off gently. "Tower. Now."

"Got it, got it." Tony said, "No smashing my stuff when you get there ok? You can destroy all you want out here-"

" **Tony**!" Steve reprimanded through the com.

" _What_ , name me someone in this neighborhood who doesn't have a Hulk policy on their insurance?! Oh yeah, _me_!" he complained before reluctantly amending, "Fine. Hulk, don’t smash anything. Captains orders."

"Tower!" Hulk insisted looking as though he was considering taking the unconscious girl back.

"Don’t worry, _Angel_ will be fine," he said, "She's quite the looker."

"MINE." Hulk stated pointing a finger at Tony. There was no mistaking that tone.

"Got it." he said closing his mask and taking off to the tower.

Hulk tore down the streets trying to inflict as little damage as possible. Captain's orders were important after all.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Medical was prepared for the injured woman. They were prepared for a Code Olive (SI's HR team had insisted 'code green' was too misleading for the safety procedures in place when Hulk was out. Tony said Olive was more descriptive of his skin tone anyway). They were not prepared for a naked Bruce Banner to storm into the OR and start demanding answers, and issuing orders. 

Pepper quickly intervened with some clothes for the man. He took them gratefully and started dressing while the charge nurse gave him a run down. Multiple defensive wounds, broken femur, broken tibia, several broken fingers, deep laceration on her scalp, severe contusions on the face and neck, and likely a mild concussion. They were prepping to set her leg now, then would start treating the laceration. Bruce took it all in as clinically as possible, he could not afford to let his emotions take over. Although 'The Other Guy' had easily taken a step back with a whispered word of 'Help' Bruce still needed to keep his wits about him.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Hours later found Bruce waiting patiently by her bed when Elle woke up. They kept her under with a mild anesthetic in order to set and cast her leg. 

"Hey Bruiser," she murmured sleepily blinking one eye at a time trying to come out of it. 

"Hey Angel," He greeted softly kissing her forehead and handing her some water.

"You saved me," she smiled at him "I was so scared, and then you came busting through he wall like prince charming."

"You are the first person to refer to him as prince charming." He whispered leaning down to kiss her again. 

"I love you." She murmured pulling him into a deeper kiss. 

"I love you to," he said pulling away, "Which is why I feel bad about what's going to happen." 

"You’re not allowed to try to break up with me while I'm in the hospital." she joked.

"Yes dear," he said, paging the nurse, "But I'm not breaking up with you." He had no intentions of letting her go ever.

"Oh good," she smiled, "Glad we don’t have to do that whole song and dance… _again_ "

Bruce had a nasty habit of trying to break it off with the excuse of 'I'm too dangerous'. His misguided attempts to protect her were old hat at this point. In fact it had been well over a year since the last time he tried to break up with her. He'd taken her to a fancy dinner, and after they finished their meal Bruce told her he wouldn’t be able to see her any more. To which she replied with a simple 'No' and asked if he would split a slice of cheesecake.

The nurse came in and checked her over before giving the OK for additional visitors.

"What's wrong?" she asked after the nurse left, "You're pacing."

"The team is waiting outside," he said nervously.

"Oh wow, this is really a nightmare scenario for you isn't it?" she chuckled tiredly. 

"It's not ideal no," he admitted, "But I don’t want you to worry about that-"

"I'm not worried." she grinned.

"They won't come in until you're ready." Bruce continued, trying to stall. Maybe she'd fall back asleep. 

"I'm ready now." she said patiently.

"If we need to wait they'll understand." he insisted.

"Bruiser," she said laughing, "You’re not getting out of this. Your friends have been waiting God knows how long, they want to make sure you're ok. Also, I'm sure you haven't had time to explain me so they're curious. This is a good thing- it's normal."

"I want to warn you about Tony." He blurted nervously.

"About how he'll be extra snarky since he wasn't in on your secret?" she guessed. It took a moment for him to process what she was saying, and damn it if he hadn’t even considered that.

"I think he may, yes." Bruce agreed, "Also, it's possible he knows everything about you, it's been a couple hours so…he's had time to research."

"Think he found that video we made?" she asked grinning naughtily at him.

_God help me._


	2. Chapter 2

"Hufflepuff?!" Tony said incredulously, "What kind of person _is_ she?"

"Ok, but Bruce is totally a Ravenclaw." Clint replied, "So it probably works."

"Said the Hufflepuff." Tony murmured.

Steve looked confused, Natasha rolled her eyes, and Sam shook his head. 

"Is this _really_ a discussion right now?" Sam asked.

"Yeah well Pepper banned me from all the good stuff." Tony complained. 

"You don’t need that girl's banking history Tony." she sighed.

Tony had been busy with hacking into…well… everything: Twitter, Instagram, Pottermore, the IRS. A few more minutes and he'd have her high school transcripts.

Gabriella Christian, (hence Hulk's Angel moniker) 28 form Brooklyn, worked as a lounge singer, and freelance song writer. From what he could see, before Pep reigned him in, the vast majority of her income came from song residuals. She had virtually no social media, only an Instagram account with mostly pictures of food, her dressed up in stage outfits, and artsy sunsets. Tony thought he caught one with Bruce's profile, but there was some debate as it wasn't really clear if it was him or not. If this _was_ Bruce they'd been dating for at least a year and no one had figured it out.

Clint and Tony were still arguing the compatibility of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw when Bruce came out.

"How is she?" Steve asked.

"Awake, and probably saucing herself with pain killers as we speak." he sighed, "She'll have to stay for observation, and recovery will take quite a while, but no lasting damage."

"That’s great Bruce." Sam said smiling, "How are you doing?"

"I'm…relieved, but also anxious about what comes next." he admitted quietly.

"What are you worried about?" Sam asked. He loved talking to Bruce, the older man was the only other avenger who wasn't emotionally constipated.

"I've been lying to you all." Bruce admitted.

"Pft, lying by omission doesn't count." Clint said confidently, Steve eyed the archer suspiciously, but held his questions.

"So, do we get to meet her?" Tony asked impatiently.

"She agreed to visitors." Bruce said. 

"Don’t look so thrilled." Natasha laughed and patted the seat next to her.

"This isn't how I imagined this going." Bruce admitted sitting down.

"How did you imagine it?" Tony asked sharply- upset his ScienceBro kept something this big from him.

"Next week, at the charity dinner." Bruce said, "I was bringing a plus one."

"I wondered…"Pepper mumbled.

"I thought it'd be the most low key way to meet you all." Bruce said.

" _Low Key_ ," Clint scoffed, "You just wanted us on our best behavior."

"Why'd you wait so long?" Sam asked curiously.

"I didn’t want to say something when it was new, then when it was something real I didn’t want to ruin it." Bruce admitted, "She's special to me, if I'm honest she's the most special thing in my life. I love her."

"Then we'll love her." Steve assured the man, "Now, let's go meet her."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

"Hey Angel," Bruce greeted before he kissed her knuckles softly, "Are you in any pain?" 

"Because I fell from heaven?" she asked with glassy eyes and a dopy smile, "Is this really the time to be trying to pick me up? My boyfriend will be back any minuet."

"I see someone found the morphine button." He said wryly, "So this should be interesting and or horrifying."

"The nurse showed me," she grinned up at him, before catching movement from the door, "You brought the super-friends?"

The team made their way into the room one by one. Bruce made introductions, as she smiled and waved to them all.

"Thank you for the ride back," she said to Tony.

"No thanks necessary," He said, "But if you do feel inclined I will accept payment in the form of details about your sex life."

"Tony!" Pepper scolded, and pinched him.

"What?!" he asked rubbing his arm, "Bruce isn't talking, how else will I find out?"

"I like him." she chuckled.

"That's what worries me." Bruce sighed.

"Aww come on Bruiser, now that the cat is out of the bag you don’t have to hide my sexy selfies, and you can talk about the hot chick you scored with last night" she winked, Bruce blushed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You're starting to make me regret this." Bruce sighed and shook his head while his team tried to hide their amusement. Some better (Steve and Natasha) than others (Clint and Tony).

"I like her!" she heard Tony say as she fell into a dreamless sleep.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

"Were you even listening to him?" Bruce asked, after the orthopedic surgeon left her room. The morning after the incident had been filled with lots of discharge paperwork, and follow up scheduling. 

"No," she said, fiddling with the a piece of the cast, "I figure you’re paying enough attention for the both of us."

"You need to be careful." Bruce said helping her into a wheel chair, "You’re going to be a bit restricted for a while."

"Ok daddy" she teased, and he groaned. 

"Enough of that," he scolded lightly, "You're not cleared yet."

"No, but we can do other things, I checked" she said as she pulled him down for a rather heated kiss. "I haven't got to _thank_ you yet." 

He cringed at the thought of her asking Nurse Chapel about that, luckily his thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. 

"It's open." he called, shocked to see Tony come in. "You don’t knock," Bruce murmured suspiciously.

"JARVIS tells me things were getting…" Tony trailed off wiggling his eyebrows, "Figured I’d give you a warning."

Bruce froze, there was _no way_ JARVIS would have told him that. The wicked glint in Tony's eye told him the other man had been privy to at least part of that exchange. Great.

"You’re all cleared to leave," Tony said, "Someone will call later to set up your follow ups. I've arranged for some home health for the therapy."

"Thank you Tony," she said dreamily, "You're so sweet. Bruce was right you’re a good friend." Bruce blushed, and not for the first time cursed the morphine's loosening of her tongue.

"You're welcome…" Not one for sentiment Tony looked equal parts amused, and uncomfortable.

"Come on babe," Bruce said quickly, not wanting to give these two another chance to embarrass him.

"Eager are we?" She snickered

The sound of Tony's laughter followed them out of the hospital ward.


	3. Chapter 3

"You have somewhere else to be?" Tony called from across the lab, "You keep checking your phone, and it's starting to hurt my feelings."

"I think you mean ego." Darcy corrected from her desk in the corner.

"Sorry," Bruce apologized, "I just haven't heard from 'Elle in a while"

He knew the drugs made her sleep, but Elle hadn't answered his calls or texts for the latter half of the day. He couldn’t quite shake the ominous feeling pooling in his gut. 

"I can help Iron Dude," Darcy said, "Go check on your girl."

"Are you sure?" he asked nervously, "I hate to leave you with him when he's this close to a breakthrough."

"Why?" Tony asked.

"You're insufferable." they replied in tandem.

"I'm sure Doc," she insisted, "It's probably nothing, but better safe than sorry right?"

"Yeah," Tony snickered, "I'm sure she'd like a little afternoon _pick me up_ , if you know what I mean."

"Yes Tony, we all know what you mean." The younger woman said rolling her eyes, "That's money in The Jar by the way."

" _What_ " He asked, "I didn’t even say it to you!"

"You really haven't paid attention to any of those mandatory the classes have you?" she mused, "It still counts."

"She's right Tony," Bruce agreed while locking up his equipment, "It counts."

One of the benefits of Darcy coming on board to assist was her inability to be pushed around by Tony. It only took three days for her to get tired of the running commentary on her breasts before she implemented the 'Sexual Harassment Jar'. Much like a 'Swear Jar' Tony had to put in money every time he made an inappropriate comment. It had only been about four months but so far Darcy had been able to pay off most of her student loans.

"Ok," Bruce said while grabbing his coat, "I just need to make sure she's ok, I'll be back soon."

The drive to her apartment was the slowest it had ever been. He could feel his patients starting to slip, and no amount of deep breathing was helping. Judging by the driver's concerned look Bruce was probably a little green from the stress.

"Elle." he called walking into her apartment, twenty minutes later "You awake?"

The lack of response did nothing to calm his nerves. The puddle of blood trailing from the kitchen into her hall didn't help either. He rushed into the kitchen only to find her laid out on the floor. She'd clearly clipped with her crutches, and must have hit her head on the way down. Her pulse was strong, thank god, she must have just knocked herself out. 

_Here we go again._ he thought to himself before his world went green.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

"Hey," Bruce greeted his team tiredly in the lobby of the medical ward later that evening, "Thanks for checking up."

"We got to figure out a better way for the 'Other Guy' to enter the Tower." Tony grouched, "The huge hole in my building isn't doing anything to help security."

"What's the damage?" Clint asked a little happy someone was close to breaking his record for number of hospital visits in a 48 hour period.

"Severe concussion, and more stitches." Bruce sighed.

"She seems pretty accident prone." Steve observed.

"You ok Bruce?" Sam asked sympathetically, "That must have been hard, finding her like that."

"I'll be ok," Bruce said, taking a cup of coffee Natasha offered him. "I'm actually glad you're all here. I would like to…to ask if she can lives with us until she gets better? She'd stay in the apartment. JARVIS would help me keep an eye on her." 

"Obviously she can stay," Tony scoffed, "It's not like I don’t have room."

"You don’t have to hide her on your floor either." Steve mused, "Darcy would love another woman around."

" _Really_ " Natasha said flatly, while shooting him a look.

"No, I mean…I just…a normal woman." Steve stuttered.

" _Wow_ " Sam chuckled, "Are you this good with Darcy to? It a wonder you managed to get her."

"I just don’t want anyone uncomfortable in their home," Bruce said saving Steve, "I know how much everyone values their privacy."

"We trust you Bruce," Sam said clasping the man on the shoulder, "If you're vouching for her, she's ok in my book." 

The rest of the team agreed.

"Is there anything I can do?" Natasha offered.

"Actually, yes." Bruce said "I have to go pack a bag for her at some point, could you help me?"

"Sure thing." she agreed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Natasha was a bit of a voyeur, it was part of the job. She went through Elle's apartment with the precision and skill of a master spy, trying to get a feel for the woman. Nothing went unnoticed, nothing went unturned. So far the most interesting things she'd found included a box of cash hidden in a wall, and a .22 in the fridge.

"She has a lot of tchotchkes," Nat called to Clint, as she scoped out the trinkets that were definitely from "Bruiser". A candle from that mission in Morocco, a pretty set of matryoshka dolls from a Russian summit he went to a few months ago, a tapestry from India. "I can’t believe we didn’t notice all the souvenirs he'd been picking up." 

Natasha made her way over to inspect a wall of photographs that lead from the living room down the hall. She had a ton of pictures of the two of them, and based on the oldest, Nat guessed she and Bruce had been dating close two years. She even had a handful of Hulk to Nat's surprise. 

She was looking at a photo of the two of them in Atlantic city. Bruce had a convention down there about 9 months ago. Elle was in a long shirt with a bikini airbrushed on it, and Bruce in one with a washboard abs. He looked happy, and clearly amused at the young woman's antics. The frame was gaudy and had glittered casino chips around the edges.

"Jackpot!" Clint shouted, "Bruce Banner is a FREAK!"

Nat followed the sound of his glee into the bedroom only to find him carelessly rifling through a box.

"Anything good?" she asked grabbing a duffle bag, and starting to fill it with clothes for the young woman.

"Couple vibes, butt plug, cock ring, hand cuffs- the real kind, blindfold, lube, flavored massage oils." he listed as he went through.

"A healthy sex life." She nodded in approval.

"I have pictures!" he shouted suddenly pilling a stack of polaroid's out and thumbing through them.

"She likes photographs," Nat said thoughtfully. 

"Yeah she does!" Clint whistled and showed her one of the girl making eye contact with the camera coyly while half way down (she assumed) Banner's cock. 

"You know, I thought I caught him looking at porn once on a mission," Nat confided, "But now I'm thinking it was just something she sent."

"I bet she calls him daddy." Clint grinned.

"You're a child." She chuckled.


End file.
